Increasing urbanization has led to the expansion of human infrastructure, including road networks. Current research has shown that roads have important ecological effects, ranging from habitat fragmentation to contamination of water runoff. This study examined the potential effects of roads on the r

Roads potentially impact nearly one-fifth of the continental United States. Runoff, traffic disturbance, and maintenance associated with roads can affect both the abiotic and biotic features of roadside ecosystems. Species along unpaved roads are particularly susceptible to road dust effects. Plant

Abiotic and biotic factors have been known to affect plant communities. How these factors affect root-colonizing fungus such as arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) and dark septate endophytes (DSE) fungal communities is still novel to ecology. Nitrogen addition has been shown to either increase or decrease

Individuals are generally predicted to avoid inbreeding because of detrimental fitness effects. However, several recent studies have shown that limited inbreeding is tolerated by some vertebrate species. Here, we examine the costs and benefits of inbreeding in a largely polygynous rodent, the yellow

Climate change is expected to alter patterns of species co-occurrence, in both space and time. Species-specific shifts in reproductive phenology may alter the assemblages of plant species in flower at any given time during the growing season. Temporal overlap in the flowering periods (co-flowering)

Previous studies by Pyke et al. have shown that bumblebees exhibit behavior that is consistent with optimal foraging theory. In this most recent effort, bumblebees were observed foraging on vertical inflorescences and their behavior was compared to a predicted model that would result in a maximum ne

There is evidence showing that large differences between age/sex categories in crown morphology of white-crowned sparrows are used to signal status. We investigated the role of more subtle crown characteristics, specifically the proportion of the crown that is white, as a signal used to mediate aggr

This project aimed to determine the mechanism of which treehopper nymphs grow in the presence of ants. Nymphs (Publilia modesta) are larger when their mutualist partner (Formica obscuripes) is present. There are two ways in which the nymphs can grow: (1) nymphs grow at the same rate, but are larger

Auditory, visual, and olfactory cues of predator presence create a landscape of fear for prey animals. Prey can respond to predation risk perceived from these cues by increasing vigilance, increasing group size, altering habitat use, and reducing activity times. State of the animal and predator type

Plant-insect interactions are ecologically important relationships that are greatly affected by climate change. Previous research concerning an aphid species (Aphis asclepiadis) and its host plant (Ligusticum porteri) has shown that aphid abundances correlate significantly with snowmelt date in the

Gynodioecy is a mode of sex expression where male sterlie (hereafter female) plants and hermaphroditic plants coexist within a population. In order for the females to be maintained by natural selection, they must have experienced an increased fitness. Fitness is defined as the ability of genotype or